What is it like in Cleveland? (Columbus, Lorain: ski resorts, Valentine's day, real estate)

[TheHesitantMarylander12]

I am 21 single and may take a job in Cleveland. What is there to do and what king of festivals are there? What is the weather like? Are the People Friendly?

[bjimmy24]

Weater: Climate Information for Cleveland*-*Ohio*-*Midwest*-*United States*-*Climate Zone

There are way too many festivals to even list, especially in the summer months. During the summer, you can go to a different festival every day probably.

People being friendly is pretty subjective and depends on who you meet. People are people anywhere. Of course, 90% of people on this forum will say the people are friendly. In general, I agree, but my opinion is pretty worthless.

What's there to do? A ton. Look for costello_musicman's posts about events. This is the last one he posted, for February to March. You can see how much is going on: http://www.city-data.com/forum/cleve...13-events.html

[costello_musicman]

Here are a few items to help give perspective:

People Friendly:
Yes

Weather:
Four seasons. (see above) East side gets more snow in the winter.

Things to do:
- Bars and Restaurants
- Comedy Clubs
- Concerts
- Theater
- 3 professional sports team and 1 AHL hockey and 1 Arena football
- Museums
- Casino
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- Lake Erie (kayaking, boating)
- Intremural Sports ("Cleveland Plays")
- Biking (Velodrome and Ray's indoor Mountain Bike Park and monthly "Cleveland Critical Mass" bike rides)

Festivals:

I keep track many times of Cleveland's ongoing events. So below, is a bunch of copying and pasting. However, I decided to grade these events on a scale from 1-4:

**** = Must go at least once in your life
*** = Worth the drive or visit
** = Probably leave feeling happy
* = 50/50 chance you will enjoy yourself

CLEVELAND EVENTS:

Feb:
**Chinese New Year Celebration Asiatown http://www.asiatowncleveland.com/events.asp
***Brite Winter Festival Brite Winter Festival | Cleveland's Winter Art & Music Celebration
**Cupid Undie Run Cupid's Undie Run Cleveland Benefits the Children's Tumor Foundation | Home | Cleveland Valentine's Day Events
*Downtown Cleveland Restaurant Week DCA - Restaurant Week - Downtown Cleveland Alliance
***Jump Back Ball (Playhouse Square) 22nd Annual Jump Back Ball at PlayhouseSquare

Mar:
****St. Patrick's Day Parade https://www.facebook.com/StPatricksDayCleveland
*Moondog Coronation Ball (Quicken Loans Arena) Moondog Coronation Ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apr:
***Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) http://www.clevelandfilm.org/
***Cleveland Indians HOME OPENER The Official Site of The Cleveland Indians | indians.com: Homepage
**Dyngus Day Dyngus Day Dyngus Day Cleveland
*EarthDay @ Cleveland Metroparks Zoo http://www.earthdaycoalition.org/
*International Children's Festival (Playhouse Square)
**Fashion Week Cleveland www.fashionweekcleveland.com/
*Weekend in Ohio City
**Annual Greek Heritage Festival (Tremont) Tremont Greek Fest | Annunciation Church, Cleveland, Ohio

May:
**Cleveland Marathon Home - Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon
**Cleveland Asiatown Festival www.clevelandasianfestival.org/
**Hessler Street Fair Hessler Street Fair -
**Great American Rib Cook-Off and Music Festival
*Berea's Rib Cook-Off

Jun:
*Bellaire Puritas Arts Festival (W.132 and Lorain)
*Italian American Summer Festival (Berea Fairgrounds)
***Parade the Circle
**Discover Gordon Square Arts District Gordon Square Arts District | Cleveland, Ohio
**Boating and Fishing Festival (North Coast Harbor) North Coast Harbor Boating & Fishing Fest
*Ohio City Run & Crawl
*Clifton Arts and Music Festival Clifton Arts and Musicfest | Cudell Improvement, Inc.
*Shaker Hts Arts and Music Festival
****Summer Solstice Party (Cleveland Museum of Art) www.clevelandart.org/events
*Larchmere PorchFest Larchmere PorchFest
***Cleveland Pride Parade and Festival Cleveland Pride
**Coventry Street Fair Coventry Village | Cleveland Heights Ohio
*Rock and Soul Festival (Rock and Roll HOF)
***Duct Tape Festival Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival
*Waterloo Arts Festival (North Collinwood)
*International Folk Festival (University Circle)

Jul:
***FREE Cleveland Orchestra concert on Public Square (4th of July time)
*Cleveland Indians Firework Nights (4th of July time)
*Larchmere Antiques Festival Larchmere - Cleveland's art and antiques district
**Harborfest PORT OF CLEVELAND 2013 TALL SHIPS FESTIVAL
*Cain Park Arts Festival www.cainpark.com/
***Luau on the Lake (Whiskey Island) http://www.luauonthelake.com
***Taste of Tremont http://www.tasteoftremont.com/
**Irish Cultural Festival - Berea fairgrounds http://www.clevelandirish.org/
*Mt. Carmel Italian Festival www.olmc-cleveland.com/
*Lincoln Park Ale Festival
***Burning River Festival http://www.burningriverfest.org/
*FREE Opera @ Italian Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park
**Susan G. Komen "Walk for the Cure" Komen Northeast Ohio Homepage

Aug:
*Puerto Rican Parade and Latino Fest
**Cleveland Browns Family Day
*Lakewood Arts Festival
**Warehouse District Festival
*Cleveland Triathlon Cleveland Triathlon Event Information - Event Management
*Discover Cedar Fairmount Summer Festival & Arts and Crafts Show
**Cuyahoga County Fair Cuyahoga County Fair - Berea, OH - Cleveland, OH
****Feast of the Assumption (Little Italy) Cleveland Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy on Murray Hill in Cleveland Ohio
*Cleveland Dragon Boat Festival Cleveland Dragon Boat Festival
*Greek Festival @ Saints Constantine and Helen Cathedral Saints Constantine and Helen Cathedral, Cleveland Heights, OH - Greek Festival August 18, 2011 USA
**Romanian Festival @ St. Mary St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Chatedral
*Egyptian Festival @ St. Mark Coptic Church Egyptian festival set Aug. 26 in Seven Hills | cleveland.com
**Ukrainian Village Festival @ St. Vladimir St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral - EVENTS
*Hungarian Festival http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...h_hungari.html

Sep:
*Festival of Saint Rocco Events at St. Rocco
*St. John Cantius Polish Festival (Tremont)
*Armenian Festival @ St. Gregory of Narek St Gregory Of Narek | ARMENIAN CHURCH
**Cleveland Oktoberfest (Berea) Cleveland Labor Day Oktoberfest | Octoberfest - Berea, OH - Cleveland, OH
***Cleveland National Air Show Home :: Cleveland National Air Show
****Ingenuity Festival Ingenuity Cleveland
**Tremont Arts and Cultural Festival Tremont West Development Corporation - tremont-arts-cultural-festival
**Chalk Festival (University Circle) www.clevelandart.org/events
*Taste of Little Italy https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-T...15947535156116
**Cleveland Garlic Festival (Shaker Square) http://www.clevelandgarlicfestival.org/
***Sparx City Hop http://www.downtowncleveland.com/events/sparx-city-hop.aspx

Oct:
**St. Stanislaus Polish Festival (Slavic Village) http://www.ststanislaus.org/events.html
**Columbus Day Parade (Little Italy) http://www.littleitalycleveland.com/

Nov:
***Downtown Cleveland Winterfest and Public Square lighting
**Fabulous Food Show

Dec:
*Ohio City Christmas Walk
***Holiday CircleFest (University Circle)
*Tremont Santa Shuffle


Some other neat monthly events include:
*Tremont Art Walk Tremont ArtWalk | Tremont ArtWalk is a recurring event on the second Friday of every month from 6-10 p.m. More than twenty venues participate.
*Science Cafe Cleveland CASE Chapter, Sigma Xi
*Walk All Over Waterloo https://www.facebook.com/WaterlooArtsDistrict
**Cleveland Critical Mass Bike Ride Cleveland Critical Mass | Last Friday of Every Month. Ride With Hundreds.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

There are way too many festivals to even list, especially in the summer months. During the summer, you can go to a different festival every day probably.

I stand corrected, costello_musicman.

[Natural510]

Great list....sounds like Cleveland is the mecca for European-heritage celebrations.

[lindarogers]

Cleveland and the surrounding areas are fantastic no matter what your age or background. This is a great time to move here as things are developing fast. Real estate prices will, no doubt, begin to climb in the very near future. Come and spend a long weekend and see for yourself. Oh and YES, you have to like snow in the winter and heat in the summer. But, we have some ski resorts, beaches and marinas. And, plenty of indoor things to do in bad weather and outdoor things to do in good. Really anything you could want no matter the season. You should come check it out for sure.

[BuckeyeGirl82]

Hi Marylander! I grew up in Cleveland, but live in Maryland now. We're actually planning to move back to Cleveland soon, not because we don't like Maryland, but its just not home. The two are very different and it's hard to find a lot of similarities, but both wonderful in their own right. I will say, you will find the cost of living to be far more affordable and the people more easy going and down to earth in the Midwest. Good luck to you!

[ThatGuyFromOC]

Clevelands pretty laid back in comparison to cities like Chicago and Detroit. But how much you wold like it depends on the area you live in and the type of things you like. We do have alot of festivals and celebrations here too some good some bad.

But the youth of the city generally has a very "hood" mentality which is my only major gripe with my city. This is why I haven't attended the St. Roccos parade or Puerto Rican festival in the last couple years because people usually end up dying or seriously injured almost everytime.

The St. Patricks day parade is a usually a blast, plenty of drunks downtown that day! However about 2 years ago a terrible riot broke out, a couple of people were shot (1 right in front of tower city!) and the national guard, swat and the cpd ended up having to diffuse the situation (I seen a tank!) . I remember that day so clearly it was just surreal with the amount of chaos goin on. I beleive it was mostly gang fueled because there were people getting jumped by groups 30 to 100 deep literally.

Some people also got shot at the george Clinton concert about a year ago too

I'm not saying we're a bad city or bad people but it can be dangerous so beware.

[Robhu]

Yes, as the above poster stated, it can be "dangerous anywhere", but in general the people of Cleveland and most of the midwest are blue collar working people who just try to get along and will help someone when needed. There is deversity and there are many things to do or see. Summer's are good, spring and fall are beautifull, winter is, well, winter. If you don't like a lot of snow don't settle in the "snow belt". But anywhere in northeast Ohio can still get some pretty good snow. You might want to avoid the east Cleveland metropolitan area. Other than that there are some very nice locations to live in the Cleveland area and I think you will find the people friendly. As far as things to do or see, the list is long and anything you enjoy I think can be found.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by ThatGuyFromOC

Clevelands pretty laid back in comparison to cities like Chicago and Detroit. But how much you wold like it depends on the area you live in and the type of things you like. We do have alot of festivals and celebrations here too some good some bad.

But the youth of the city generally has a very "hood" mentality which is my only major gripe with my city. This is why I haven't attended the St. Roccos parade or Puerto Rican festival in the last couple years because people usually end up dying or seriously injured almost everytime.

The St. Patricks day parade is a usually a blast, plenty of drunks downtown that day! However about 2 years ago a terrible riot broke out, a couple of people were shot (1 right in front of tower city!) and the national guard, swat and the cpd ended up having to diffuse the situation (I seen a tank!) . I remember that day so clearly it was just surreal with the amount of chaos goin on. I beleive it was mostly gang fueled because there were people getting jumped by groups 30 to 100 deep literally.

Some people also got shot at the george Clinton concert about a year ago too

I'm not saying we're a bad city or bad people but it can be dangerous so beware.

Blah blah "hood" again with you. Yes, not everyone in Cleveland is white. Some of them are teenagers. Get over it. It is not the norm to go to a festival and have someone die. For St. Patrick's day, are you talking about 2011 when some kids were fighting on Public Square and there were a lot of arrests? Your story just doesn't sound familiar and searching for such an event on google doesn't yield any relevant results. Police arrest 35 following St. Patrick's Day Parade in Cleveland | cleveland.com

George Clinton shooting was not outside Quicken Loans arena or anything. It was at Luke Easter Park. I know you probably don't know where that is, so look it up.

Plus, you do know that military people are already downtown anyway for the parade? Nobody called the national guard.

Cleveland is not as dangerous as your post suggests. Visitors will be 100% fine. Sheesh.